Demon Lord

Chapter Twelve

  The Old Kingdom

  The seeress sat back, rubbing her eyes. Weariness weighed her down. Her back ached and her eyes throbbed from too much scrying. Tallis hovered nearby, her concerned expression telling Ellese that she was probably haggard and grey-faced. Since Mirra had left the abbey, Tallis had insisted on being the one to watch over Ellese while she was scrying, eager for news of her friend. Ellese spent a lot of time hunched over the glass these days, and her worries had lined her face and put more white into her grey hair. The healers now resided at a poor coastal abbey where the sun shone and all seemed peaceful. Only Ellese was still subjected to the Demon Lord’s atrocities through her scrying. To the rest, the tales she told were far removed from their lives, even though they knew them to be true.

  Tallis handed Ellese a cup of water. “You should spend some time in the sun, Mother.”

  “I know. I will.” Ellese sipped the water. “At least we have sun, now that the Demon Lord moves away.”

  “Yes. How fares Mirra?”

  “She is as well as can be expected.” She put aside the cup and rubbed her temples. “Bane has destroyed the city of Nestor, after toying with the King. Mirra saved the Prince, and Bane declined to punish her. She was lucky. I think his headache was too bad.”

  “He has broken four wards now, Mother. He has but three to go.” Tallis shook her head. “I do not understand how Mirra will stop him.”

  Ellese smiled. “Imagine two ships sailing the ocean, one pure and good, its sails as white as snow, its hull mother-of-pearl. The other is as black as the night, its sails made of shadows, its hull ebony. But there is a tiny flame aboard the black ship. A pure flame.”

  Ellese closed her eyes. “Imagine that they meet, come together in a mist, and crash into each other, damaging one another, but also becoming entangled. They cannot be parted, but each sails to a different wind. The black ship would sail on to the sunset and destroy the world. The white ship strives to turn away. The closer the black ship comes to the sunset, the more the white ship seeks to turn away, but they are bound together, inseparable, and equally strong. You see?” She opened her eyes.

  Tallis frowned. “Either the white ship will turn the black, or the black ship will take the white with it to its destruction.”

  “But they are equally strong.”

  “Then they will tear each other apart.”

  Ellese picked up the cup and sipped from it again. “Perhaps. But there is one factor you forgot.”

  “The pure flame?”

  “Yes.”

  “You think there is good in Bane?” Tallis sounded incredulous.

  “He is human. He is not a demon, or demon possessed. His soul belonged to the Lady when he was born, but the Black Lord has corrupted it. It can be redeemed, and only Mirra can do that.”

  “So...”

  “Mirra must fan the spark of good in Bane until it flares up and consumes him, then he will turn away of his own accord.”

  “But surely demons can complete the task, now that they are able to rise from the Underworld?”

  Ellese shook her head. “Bane is far more powerful than a demon. He is the Black Lord’s equal. The mages who set the wards thought they had made them strong enough, for the only one with the power to break them was the one they imprisoned below.”

  Tallis shuddered. “Until Bane.”

  “Yes, Bane is the Black Lord’s answer to the riddle, but he has one small weakness we can use. The very thing the Black Lord needed in order to send him above to break the wards: his humanity.”

  “So Mirra was sent to save him.”

  Ellese smiled, rising to her feet. “I shall go and sit in the sun awhile.”